WE MARCH-APRIL 1981 light spot on the display unit. be seen to locate a defect, a spe What's An orangewood stick is used cially designed fixture is used to as a pointer. The short then can flip the circuit board from one New be marked with an arrow stick side to the other. e r. To l o o k a t t h e d e f e c t m o r e Using the camera, 95 percent closely, the technician places the of the defects were repaired. The T h e N o r t h e r n I l l i n o i s Wo r k s h a s extension ring on the lens of the implementation of the infrared a new cost saving infrared cam camera and positions the camera camera system for diagnostic era system for locating defects in so that an area 1 '4 inches square testing realized a substantial circuit packs. around the problem area may be cost reduction savings during its The diagnostic testing system viewed. first year of use for semi-conduc consists of a camera, liquid ni If both sides of the board must tor store circuit packs alone. trogen to provide a stable base for temperature comparison and a cathode ray tube to display the image seen by the camera. Generally, there are four types of problem-causing shorts in cir cuit packs: defective compo nents, foreign debris, solder bridges and internal multi-layer board defects. Early data col lected with the new system indi cate that components are more

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M a r c u s O n a t e w i t h i n f r a r e d c a m e r a that provides color monitoring. Shorts show up as white spots. frequently defective than the b o a r d s t h e m s e l v e s . When a circuit pack is for warded for diagnostic testing, it is positioned in a fixture in front of the infrared camera, and pow er is applied. While monitoring the display and the power meters, the operating technician slowly increases current to the s h o r t e d c i r c u i t . T h i s c u r r e n t raises the temperature of the shorted area, which appears as a 2nd Issue 33rd Year

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VLSI What Very Large Scale Integration bodes for the future 8 Reaching The Top A Pittsburgh engineer takes on the Andes 12 VIRGOS B e l l S a l e s n e w e s t computer system 16 Molding The Corporate Logo The fine art of making Bell System logos 20 Let's All Sing LikeThe Birdies Sing A reprise of some old company songs 22 Benefits Quiz How much do you know about Plan revisions? 24 O u r N e w e s t H o m e t o w n A v i s i t t o t h e s i t e o f o u r n e w e s t Page 24 electronic components plant 28 Of Parking, Pools and People The history of a very successful carpool

q'tnraii^rtia '' 30 Stager's Year: 1881 H d e c i s i o n d u e The man who engineered our entry into the Bell System

G e o r g e G r a y P e t e r L e w i s O N T H E C O V E R : P r o c e s s c h e c k e r E d i t o r D e s i g n Western Electric Jacquie Younger and engineer Fran Saul Fingerman Leonard Stern Ehret examine VLSI chips under a M a n a g i n g E d i t o r P h o t o g r a p h y microscope in the MOS clean room Elizabeth Perlman Thomas J. O'Donoghue a t A l l e n t o w n W o r k s . O u r c o v e r |WE| is published for employees of A s s o c i a t e E d i t o r P r o d u c t i o n Western Electric. President; D.E.Procknow; story begins on page 2. Photo by Secretary: R.F.Ehinger; Copyright © 1981 by Western Electric Co., Inc. Len Stern. Treasurer: R.L.MeLaughlin. All Rights Reserved. Editorial office: 222 Broadway, NY, NY 10038 P r i n t e d i n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s o f A m e r i c a . Telephone: (212) 669-2621 Title "WE" is a registered U.S. trademark. By Saul Fingerman In a real sense, Allentown has were beginning to realize there was been in a state of transition from no end in sight. From the outside, the Allentown its beginning. It went on-line in Works looks just like any other Today, we are well into VLSI. 1947, the same year the transistor We are making chips with over postwar Western Electric plant. w a s i n v e n t e d a t B e l l L a b s . I r o n i Girded on three sides by tree-lined 150,000 components, and there's cally, although its original purpose still no end in sight. In fact. Bell parking lots, its sprawling yellow- was to be a high-volume producer brick walls blend harmoniously Labs is already looking into the of vacuum tubes, it was Allentown into the peaceful Pennsylvania design of chips with over one mil and its people that introduced the lion components on them. landscape, and only the seasons transistor into mass production. seem to change. Inside, however, Even more impressive is the mas it's a different story. Those yellow- That was in 1951, but the real sive outpouring of creative intelli brick walls envelop startling impact of this new technology gence that led to all this. VLSI is, changes that represent a massive wasn't really felt until the 1960s after all, the creation of a small incursion into the future—changes w h e n i t w a s l e a r n e d h o w t o m a k e army of scientists and engineers, that are making Allentown unrec many transistors at one time on a many of them at Bell Labs and ognizable to many visitors. single piece of silicon, each tran We s t e r n E l e c t r i c . O n e s u c h i s B i l l The wide open spaces so charac sistor only a few thousandths of an Frankfort, Manager, Engineering teristic of Western Electric plants inch big. Like the vacuum tubes Silicon Integrated Circuits, at Al-

These little chips are having a profound impact on the electronics industry VLSI are gone, filled in by enormous they superseded, the transistors Microphotograph of metal contact high-walled clean rooms whose could perform many vital elec strips on a 64K RAM. Each strip is eerie, yellow lights, white-gowned tronic functions. They could gen m u c h s m a l l e r t h a n a h u m a n h a i r. personnel and futuristic equipment erate a signal, or amplify it, or lentown. w o u l d m a k e i d e a l s e t s f o r s c i e n c e switch it on and off or store it as a F r a n k f o r t m a k e s i t c l e a r t h a t fiction movies. Equally redolent of bit of memory. VLSI was the result of evolutionary science fiction are the products be In time, it was learned how to rather than revolutionary pro ing made here. They are huge ag make equally minuscular capaci cesses. "There's no great clap of gregations of electronic circuitry, tors and resistors on silicon chips. thunder, and you're in a VLSI incredibly condensed onto tiny Now, many of these elements could world," he says. "You get here in chips of silicon not much larger be connected together to make orderly stages. You keep improving than an aspirin and considerably more complicated monolithic cir processes, decreasing feature sizes thinner. cuits—that is, complete circuits on and so on. No one single thing gives Fittingly enough, in this age of a single piece of silicon. These were you VLSI." acronyms, they are collectively the first true integrated circuits, Dinesh Mehta, Engineering Man known as VLSI, which stands for or ICs for short. ager, Metal Oxide Integrated Cir very large scale integration. In a On the average, every year since cuits, for Allentown, puts it more less technical vein, the letters could then, we have doubled the number succinctly: "We got here starting also stand for very large scale im of components per chip. By the with the transistor," he says, "and pact, for their effect on the Bell early 1970s, we were making chips it's been a long, hard road." System—indeed the world—is only with what people thought of as re Mehta's here is a good place to just beginning to be felt. Allentown markable amounts of circuitry— be as evinced by one of Allentown's is currently making only about a namely 40 to 100 components. Ret first VLSI chips—the 64K dynamic half a dozen different types of VLSI rospectively, this is known as small RAM. That mouthful can be broken chips, and some of the clean rooms scale integration. By the late 1970s, down as follows: The K stands for that have so dramatically altered we knew how to put more than a 1024 (2^® actually), meaning it can its interior landscape are still un thousand components on a single store over 65,536 bits of memory. der construction. It is a beehive of chip. We were in a new era with a Dynamic means its memory has to activity, all of which seems to be new name—LSI for large scale in be electronically "refreshed" every 2 s a y i n g t r a n s i t i o n . tegration. And visionary people few milliseconds, and RAM stands An automatic processing l i n e f o r s i l i c o n w a f e r s in the BIG clean room. Taurine Dietrich (fore ground) loads machine while Jim Kamyniski adjusts controls. Pic ture was shot through yellow glass window.

Name tags on some of the c l e a n - r o o m s m o c k s f o r the bipolar clean room.

Grouped on steps of one o f A l l e n t o w n ' s n e w c l e a n r o o m s a r e t h r e e of the men who helped design them—Boyd Tong, Pete Zogas and Walt McCormick. for random access memory, mean ing any of the 65,536 bits can be accessed in any order, without hav ing to sequentially scan through other bits as is the case with tape memories. Both Frankfort and Mehta reflect Allentown's justifiable pride in the fact that, although a lot of semicon ductor manufacturers are just be ginning to market 64K RAMs, Al- lentown has been shipping substan tial quantities during all of 1980. In faet, we make more of them than the rest of the world put together. An artiele in the September 15, 1979 issue of The New York Times entitled, "The Fight Over Computer Chips" noted that the semiconduc i , , J ' tor industry would have 64K RAMS available by late 1980. When the article appeared, Allentown had al ready been shipping early produc tion quantities for about a year. To do its job properly, a 64K memory chip actually has about 152,000 components — many of these being used to get information into and out of the chip. And even th i s n u m b e r d o e s n 't te l l th e w h o l e story. Many redundant memory cells are included on the chip as working spares. These can be cut in by an ingenious laser repair pro cess to replace defective cells if nec essary. This unique repair eapabil- ity is a great help in increasing yields—a major target of all semi conductor manufacturers. "Early yields are fairly low with any new device," says Frankfort, stallations, the call store occupied Still another major advantage of "but continue to grow as we engi 104 feet of equipment frames. To VLSI is its reliability. Having com neer our way up the learning day, using the 64K RAM—or even plete systems and subsystems on curve. The laser repair technique its predecessor, the 16K RAM—we a single chip eliminates the need was part of this process. In short, can provide the same amount of for tediously wiring and connect the more devices you make, the memory in just a few feet of rack ing thousands of components and better you get at it." space. What's more the new mem the potential errors and defects Like all integrated circuits, VLSI ory will be faster, cheaper and use that often accompany such work. chips are batch fabricated. That is, less power. In addition, VLSI components age over a hundred of them are simul In addition to size reduction, m u c h b e t t e r t h a n d i s c r e t e c o m taneously processed on a single sil VL SI o ffe rs so me l e ss o b vi o u s a d ponents. i c o n w a f e r . T h e w a f e r s a r e 1 0 0 vantages. The electrons that ani Bob Duchynski, another VLSI millimeters in diameter (about four mate electronic circuits, whizzing engineering manager sums it all up. inches) and many of them are put from one component to another, "What VLSI really means," he through the numerous VLSI pro are very fast—almost as fast as the says, "is that we can create new cesses simultaneously. Each wafer speed of light. Nevertheless, they communications features, capabili i s t h e n s l i c e d i n t o a h u n d r e d o r travel at a finite speed, and, if they t i e s a n d s e r v i c e s t h a t c o u l d n ' t b e provided with other technologies." H e o ff e r s t h e D i m e n s i o n ® P B X a s an example. "All of its calling fea tures are software controlled. This means doing things with memories and microprocessors that used to mean a whole roomful of equip ment, but can now be done with only a few chips. This gives us a Norma Bless prepares to tremendous cost advantage." load a tray of silicon The only fly in the VLSI ointment w a f e r s i n t o a d i f f u s i o n is the extreme difficulty of making furnace. Microprocessors c o n t r o l a n d m o n i t o r t h e defect-free chips. The dimensions entire process. o f s o m e t r a n s i s t o r f e a t u r e s a n d o f all the metal interconnecting paths are 3.5 microns or less. That's three and one-half millionths of a meter. If this doesn't tell you much, pluck out one of your hairs and look at it. It's about 80 microns, or over 20 times as large as the typical fea ture on a VLSI chip. In so small a universe, dust particles can be as more individual chips. Thus, thou have to course through long lengths devastating as huge boulders. An sands of VLSI chips can be fabri of wire—as they do in hard-wired invisible five-micron particle fall cated at one time. Couple this with circuits made up of discrete com ing across two adjacent connecting the fact that each chip may be a ponents—things happen much too paths can cause a catastrophic complete electronic system, such as slowly for today's computer-driven short circuit that can turn a chip a microcomputer, and you begin to world. Now, if the interconnecting into junk. Since a VLSI chip with u n d e r s t a n d t h e e c o n o m i c a l l u r e o f paths can be held to microscopic a couple of hundred thousand com ponents may also have over half a "What VLSI really means is that we can million connecting paths, it's easy create new communications features, to see why clean rooms are taking capabilities and services..." o v e r s o m u c h o f A l l e n t o w n ' s fl o o r space. VLSI technology. lengths, as they are on VLSIs, the W h a t m a k e s a c l e a n r o o m s o The most obvious advantage of electrons don't have as far to travel, clean is something called vertical VLSI is the size reduction it makes and they can achieve their vital op laminar flow. Air is forced through possible in equipment. In 1965, for erations at phenomenal speeds. In extremely fine filters in the ceiling example, the call store of a No. 1 the 64K RAM, for example, data in vertical sheets straight down to ESS used something called "ferrite- can be retrieved in about 170 bil- a perforated metal floor at a veloc sheet" memory. In some larger in- lionths of a second. ity of 90 feet per minute. After go- ing through the floor, the air goes cubic foot of air. One frame of ref operating room is loaded with par through a second set of filters and erence that may give you some idea ticulate matter. In any case, the is sent back up to the ceiling to be of what this means is cigarette needs are dramatically different: gin the cycle again. Every 12-foot smoke. The particles that make up hospitals try only to filter out liv area is monitored, setting off these noxious clouds average 10 ing matter like microbes. VLSI alarms when airflow stops or tem- microns in diameter, and there are c l e a n r o o m s m u s t fi l t e r o u t i n a n i mate matter as well. In addition to particles in the air, there are other, more subtle causes of defects, such as minute c o n t a m i n a t i o n s i n c h e m i c a l s o l u tions. Thus, clean-room water goes through the most extensive purifi cation process used by any indus try, and chemicals are purchased in ultrapure form. Even these su- pergrade chemicals are sometimes f u r t h e r r e fi n e d a t A l l e n t o w n . Caution is always the watch w o r d . I f a s i l i c o n w a f e r i s a c c i dentally bumped, it will shower nearby wafers with thousands of silicon particles. Further, the peo ple who might do the bumping are themselves major sources of par ticulate matter, hence they are en veloped in surgical gowns and hats. The ideal VLSI room, according to Bob Duchynski, would be fully au tomated. Western Electric is, in fact, trending in that direction and has already introduced several au tomation techniques to minimize contact between people and prod uct. In one wet chemical process, a trayful of wafers is loaded into one end of a totally enclosed processing line; a button is pushed, and the processed wafers come out the other end. There are two sets of clean rooms at Allentown, one for each of two different VLSI technologies. Signs with four-foot-high lettering iden tify them: One says MOS and the other, BIG. Ed Labuda, Engineer ing Manager — Bipolar Integrated Circuits, reminds us that MOS is s h o r t f o r m e t a l o x i d e s e m i c o n d u c Checking a silicon wafer of VLSI chips are Theresa Neupauer, Tom Oswalt tor and BIG stands for bipolar in and Walter Held. The scene was photographed through window of the MOS clean room. Oswalt's beard is masked by snood to satisfy regulations. tegrated circuit. They are simply two different configurations and peratures vary by more than one- billions of them in every cubic foot structures that require different half degree Fahrenheit. of smoke. Hospital operating processing and lend themselves to A l l e n t o w n ' s c l e a n r o o m s a r e rooms offer another interesting different applications. The MOS known as Class 100, which means comparison. Although they seem to transistor structure for example, is they can have no more than 100 be as clean as clean rooms, they're well suited to mass memory appli particles (of anything) between one not. Compared to a clean room's cations, such as the 64K RAM. BIG and five microns in size in every atmosphere, the air in the average transistor structures, on the other 5 hand, lend themselves to applica d e v i c e f e a t u r e s i n t o t h e s i l i c o n All of these processes require the tions requiring high-speed switch wafers are isotropic in their action very best state-of-the-art equip ing. Bob Visco, Manager VLSI —meaning they carve away the sili ment, so it's not surprising that Planning, has an excellent analogy: c o n a n d o t h e r m a t e r i a l s i n a h o r i VLSI fabrication spells high capi "It's like bridges," he says, draw zontal direction just as quickly as tal investment. A fully equipped ing one in the air with his hand. they do in the desired vertical di clean room can run into the tens of "There are many kinds — suspen rection. This results in still further millions of dollars, and the costs sion, draw, trestle and so on. Each o n e i s b e s t f o r a c e r t a i n k i n d o f application, but they're all bridges." To complete the analogy, Visco points out that bridges trans port vehicles while transistor struc tures transport electrons and/or holes. A tour through a clean room by a trayful of wafers takes many weeks. During this time, the myriad features of each chip are etched into, and sometimes deposited on to, the wafers. VLSI chips—partic ularly bipolar chips—are essen tially multilayer sandwiches, ex cept that more material is carved away than is added. Some VLSI chips have as many as 13 levels, each of which requires separate processing. The micro features of VLSI chips are achieved by projecting their outlines through pattern masks onto a layer of photoresist material that is sensitive to the wavelength of the light or energy source being used. At present, the masks are thin sheets of glass with chrome pat terns, and the energy source is ul traviolet light. Both of these are limiting factors that will have to change with time. The problem is t h a t a s t h e s i z e o f m a s k f e a t u r e s approaches the wavelength of the light source, pattern resolution, or sharpness, falls apart because of a phenomenon known as diffraction. In short — things begin getting fuzzy — an intolerable situation if larger scale integration is ever to Dinesh Mehta, Ed Labuda and Bob Visco in front of the new MOS clean room. be achieved. To overcome this Mehta and Labuda are responsible for engineering MOS and BIC VLSI problem. Bell Labs and WE engi chips. Visco has been planning for the new facility in Orlando, Florida. neers are investigating other com binations of masks and energy blurring of features. The solution will probably grow as feature sizes sources, such as x-rays and electron is a dry process called plasma etch shrink. beams which have very short wave ing. Instead of wet chemicals, it Happily, the results more than lengths. uses gases ionized by high voltages justify such expenditures. Take the Another problem with achieving to neatly carve out VLSI features echo canceller chip — one of the microscopic feature sizes is some w i t h c l e a n - c u t v e r t i c a l w a l l s w i t h VLSI chips now being made at Al- thing called "undercutting." The little or no etching in the horizontal lentown. It is used in the Bell Sys 6 wet chemicals (acids) used to etch direction. t e m n e t w o r k t o o v e r c o m e t h e a n - noying echoes that can occur in all ers and microprocessors: Micro years, it jumped to $480 million. telephone circuits, particularly computers have "on-board" mem As yet, there are no figures avail over long distances. The first appli ory; microprocessors do not. able for the auto industry, but all cation has been in satellite circuits, Tooker, whose group serves as you have to do is watch the TV which are 45,000 miles long and i n t e r f a c e b e t w e e n B e l l L a b s V L S I commercials to see how these tiny make good echo control manda development and Allentown manu chips are taking over the cars in tory. A single VLSI echo canceller facture, says, "When it comes to everything from emission control board replaces seven component- testing, the 64K RAM and the MAC- to telling time. A recent newspaper laden printed-wiring boards that 4 are worlds apart. You can check article said there is every reason to cost ten times as much. This kind the 64K just by putting a pattern believe the world semiconductor of cost improvement is typical of signal into it and seeing if the pat market will grow from $10.4 billion VLSI technology. tern is perfectly reproduced. It in 1979 to over $45 billion by the The echo canceller is representa either is, or it isn't. But with the late 1980s, and many people believe tive of custom designed VLSI chips MAC-4, it's almost impossible to that figure is low. in that it is a special-purpose Bell test it for everything it can be used VLSI's impact on the Bell Sys System product for which there is for. There's just no way you can tem will be equally dramatic. The no industry equivalent. This very exercise every instruction set, so chips are already finding their way "specialness" makes it representa we pick the ones most likely to be into many Western Electric prod tive of the way VLSI is heading. As used. Even then, if an instruction ucts, and, within a few years, they these chips become more complex doesn't work, that doesn't tell you are bound to be all pervasive. —more like complete systems— where the problem is on the chip." "The devices we're making now," they also become more distinctive, says Bob Visco, "are just the first or even unique, so that each will of what will be a long string of serve only one particular system. "Designing a chip VLSI chips. We'll see these devices Memory chips, on the other hand, with 40,000 turning up in almost every kind of are more xmiversal and can serve equipment Western Electric makes many kinds of systems, which is components is like —and they'll make that equipment why so many semiconductor manu playing chess more cost effective while enhanc facturers are making them. with 40,000 pieces." ing its performance. Memory chips serve another Which is why everyone is fore function in the world of VLSI man casting substantial growth for the ufacture. They are often used as a If testing VI Sis is difficult, you Electronic Components Division kind of process control. When a might expect that designing them and why Western Electric will be new processing line is being set up, is infinitely more so — and you building another, more modern, memories are usually the first chips would be right. It takes a host of Allentown in Orlando, Florida. to go through—^primarily because engineers and many man-years of Visco, who calls his title of "Man they are the easiest to test. As painstaking effort to design a good ager, Engineering VLSI Planning" Dinesh Mehta puts it, "When you're VLSI chip. Their end product may a euphemism for Orlando plan testing memories, you know ex be no larger than your fingernail, ning, is exuberant about this, as actly what to look for. A bit of but it will perform tasks that used yet, unborn plant. "It will be our memory either exists or it doesn't." to take a whole roomful of equip leading edge, volume producer of This makes it easy to determine ment, or, increasingly, tasks that VLSI," he says, "and we're design which memory cells aren't work simply couldn't be done without it. ing it from the ground up to be a ing, and a little analysis will then Just as VLSIs probably couldn't be VLSI factory." tell you what caused that particular manufactured without the help of Looking ahead, Visco sees great cell not to work. With something computers, they probably couldn't things in store for VLSI and be like the echo canceller, you can tell be designed without such help. As yond. He has no intention of falling if the chip is functional or not, but one Bell Labs designer put it, "De into the error pointed out by Mike it's very difficult to locate exactly signing a chip with 40,000 compo Thompson, the Executive Director w h i c h t r a n s i s t o r i s b a d . nents is like playing chess with of the Allentown Bell Labs, who Department Chief Howard Took- 40,000 pieces." said, "The one consistent error er, an old Allentown hand who In terms of its impact on our made in forecasting the direction helped usher in the transistor 30 day-to-day existence, the ubiqui of silicon technology has been that years ago, offers another VLSI chip tous microprocessor is probably of expecting too little of the fu as an example—the MAC-4. This re number one on the hit parade. The ture." markable product is a complete toy industry alone offers substan He might have added that, in the computer—memory and all—on a tial proof of its popularity. In 1977, future, the transistor will be re single chip. Incidentally, that's the the electronic toy market was $21 membered not so much for what it difference between microcomput million. By 1979, in just two short d i d a s f o r w h a t i t l e d t o . [ ^ 7 Why do people climb By Jane Moulton m o u n t a i n s ? F o r t h e Photos by Jim Painter sheer love of it and Bruce Cox REACmiG "Reaching the top is, of course, what you aim for," says Jim Paint er, a twelve-year veteran at the Pittsburgh Service Center, "but everything you experience along the way is really what's most im portant." Jim is not referring to his career —his occupation as an electrical

Above—John Nosworthy forges Standing 22,205 feet, Mt. Huas loved it." His pursuit of kayaking ahead on some of the upper caran is the highest of some 100 led naturally to an introduction to mountain's tougher terrain. peaks in the Peruvian Andes' Cor other people who relished active engineer for WE's Eastern Region, dillera Blanca (White Range) and outdoor vacations away from the but his avocation—getting to the o n e t h a t c l i m b e r s h a v e f o u n d e x city as much as Jim did, and led tops of mountains. In particular, ceptionally difficult to conquer. him eventually to the Explorers Jim is interested in major moun "I've always enjoyed the out Club of Pittsburgh. tains (20,000 feet or higher, by defi doors," says Jim, "skiing, camping, About eight years ago, he took a nition) such as Mt. Huascaran in those kinds of things. Then I tried survey course in mountain climb Peru, which he visited for the sec kayaking—just on a weekend trip a ing given by Dr. Ivan Jirak at a ond time last summer. local shop was running — and I local university. "He really inspired THE1QP

Above—WE's Jim Painter, left, discusses the terrain of Mt. Huascaran (pictured left) with Tony Karezewski, center, and John Grunick before their climb up the 22,000-foot Peruvian peak.

works at Western's Pittsburgh Service Center, spent several months preparing for the seven- day trek up Mt. Huascaran. Jim ran five miles a day, as did some of the others, and most climbed daily to the top of a 34-floor local university building in training for the rigor ous ascent up the glacier-covered mountain. No light undertaking for anyone, the trip had particular meaning for Jim, who lost three friends in a tragic accident during his first climb up the same peak in 1978. "That year, four members of a seven-person expedition had climbed to the third camp at 15,000 feet," Jim recalls. "At that point I was forced to turn back, like most me to climb," says Jim. "He's 55 quick and easy to get to, and be of the others before me, because years old and he's gone on major c a u s e t h e m o u n t a i n s t h e m s e l v e s o f a l t i t u d e s i c k n e s s . " T h e t h r e e climbs every summer since he was are readily accessible. "In Alaska others went on to the summit, but 20, so he has considerable knowl or the Himalayas it can take you n e v e r r e t u r n e d . edge of the field." two to four weeks just to get to the One man's body was found sev Now an accomplished climber base of the mountain," he says. eral days later, frozen after an himself, Jim led his own ten-mem "But a major climb in South Amer obviously lengthy fall from the ber expedition to Huaras, Peru, in ica can be done in an average three- s u m m i t . U n a b l e t o fi n d h i s t w o July. Like many climbers, he chose w e e k v a c a t i o n . " partners, the rescue team even South America for his expedition The Pittsburgh team, which in tually had no choice but to assume because it's inexpensive, relatively cluded Jack Brinjak, who also they had also died of similar gear, usually about 60 pounds of equipment and food." Another climbing method com mon among Europeans and in the Himalayas, allows for porters who are hired independently to carry the climbers' gear. Going alpine style, you always send a team of two or three people ahead with ex tra gear to scout the route and find a campsite for the next night. Then

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Above—Climbers relax in the sun and lightweight tents after unloading sixty- pound backpacks to set up camp for the night. Meanwhile, at right, it's just another day for native villagers at the marketplace in the town of Huaras.

causes. luxurious, but it has a view that "After that, to go back was more would knock you out." taxing mentally than physically," Even more important, he adds, says Jim. "I did a lot of soul search it allows you to get a feel for the ing after that accident and I was people and their culture. very depressed, naturally, but I "The people are very poor for finally decided I enjoyed climbing the most part, but they're very enough to go back to it." The next friendly. It's fascinating," he says, year Jim returned to South Amer as he enthusiastically talks about ica to test himself on several small er peaks. t h e d i s t i n c t i v e h a t s H u a s c a r a n ' s men and women wear to identify This time, however, it was back their tribes, their indestructible to Mt. Huascaran in Huaras, a Pe s h o e s o f s t r a w a n d r u b b e r s o l e s ruvian village that has become as made from old cut-up car tires, and dear to Jim's heart for its warm, children he's played jacks with on colorful people as for its challeng t h e d i r t fl o o r s o f t h a t c h e d - r o o f ing mountain range. "I taught myself some Spanish, huts. so that's made it easier for me to Neither Jim nor any of the mem they come back down to join the communicate and make friends bers of his expedition reached Mt. group. during my visits," he says. As group Huascaran's summit, but what held " S o y o u ' r e n e v e r c l i m b i n g them back is nothing less than a leader of the expedition that ability continuously up; it's constant back to communicate and Jim's contacts story in itself. and forth," says Jim. "And all along came in handy. "When you don't Of the ten, only Jim and three people have to travel somewhat in know an area or speak the language others were able to climb as far as dividually — never alone, but in you tend to pay more at larger high camp at more than 19,000 feet. smaller groups according to their hotels and lower quality restau "Everyone doesn't climb together own ability and their reaction to rants simply because they're the as many people may think," ex the altitude. easiest to find," says Jim, "but if plains Jim. "It's not ten people "It's not at all unusual," he con you know someone like my friend abreast going up the mountain. We tinued, "for even experienced Pepe you can get a room for a climb alpine style, for starters, c l i m b e r s t o h a v e t o t u r n b a c k b e 10 dollar a night. It isn't the most which means we carry all our own fore reaching the top because of pulmonary edema or cerebral ede comatose by the time we met up ing bag is really tough. And he was m a . " B o t h i l l n e s s e s a r e f o r m s o f with them, and the rest of his team barely breathing. I kept expecting what's commonly known as alti was too shocked and exhausted to him to die any moment." tude sickness brought on when a be of much help." B u t h e d i d n ' t . S e v e n h o u r s a n d negative reaction to the thin air at Nightfall was approaching and 3,000 treacherous feet later, they high altitudes causes fluids to ac the Pittsburgh climbers had few met an expedition of French climb cumulate in the lungs or brain, supplies with them. "We were car ers, who, along with a member of respectively. rying light loads up to find a spot the Pittsburgh team, took over the On their way to high camp, Jim for high camp, so we only had rescue. In 48 hours, the victim was and his partner came upon a some of our equipment and a single being treated successfully at a hos climber from another expedition flashlight," Jim says. "We didn't pital inHuaras. During the Pittsburgh team's va cation, seven other people did die o f a l t i t u d e s i c k n e s s o r f r o m f a l l s on their way up Huascaran. "The people in our group who got ill were lucky — and sensible," says Jim. "They returned to base camp as soon as they felt sick. "We went back up," he says "but another group was ahead of us on our approach to summit and we ran short of daylight, so 2,000 feet from the top we were forced to turn back." Though reaching the peak is the ultimate goal, it's not at all the sole reason for climbing. Nor do Jim P a i n t e r a n d h i s a d v e n t u r o u s c o l leagues have a death wish. "We don't do it because it's dangerous," says Jim. "On the contrary. We're quite careful to avoid dangerous s i t u a t i o n s a n d w e ' r e c o n fi d e n t t h a t we know what we're doing. It's a test of our skills and experience. It's exhilarating. And, it's tough to explain, but there's a real camaraderie among the group. Climbing is always re liant on team spirit; we're very de pendent on one another's skills and strengths, so there has to be a great deal of trust among members of who was suffering from both. A have much choice but to improvise the group." m a r a t h o n r u n n e r f r o m t h e s t a t e o f as best we could to maneuver the The group had already climbed Washington, the ailing climber had man down to safety as quickly as nearby Mt. San Juan, which is a already been on his back for two possible." No easy task in the best smaller peak, as "a warmup" for days, his condition unchanged even of conditions, carrying someone — Mt. Huascaran. by the treatment of a physician i n d a r k n e s s m u c h o f t h e t i m e — "Naturally we were disappointed who was part of his four-person down the glacier-covered moun we didn't reach the top of Huas contingent. tainside proved an unforgettable caran," says Jim. "But we would "The doctor was giving him experience. only have been on the summit for drugs," says Jim, "but the only "It's hard enough in daylight to a short time. The whole trip was thing that can save someone from m a n e u v e r t h e i c e a n d c r e v a s s e s really enjoyable and exciting, and possibly drowning internally is to yourself," says Painter, "but trying the mountain will always be there get him to a lower place where the to do it in the dark while you're when I want to go back for another air is richer in oxygen. He was semi- carrying a sick person in a sleep t r y . " m

By George Gray Photos by Joe Gazdak

A giant step toward mechanization of Bell Sales Engineering

Left — Joe Sobolewski, a 23-year man inflation has played havoc with the area served. It would be pro in switchboard engineering, poses costs. b e s i d e a V I R G O S t e r m i n a l w i t h hibitively expensive to provide ev Systems Equipment Engineering printout on a lA ESS job. Below — ery possible option in every office. Wycessa Ransom, expediter, and (SEE), which is 80 percent or more The phone company therefore pro Darby O'Brien, Engineering Associ of the Bell Sales Engineering ef v i d e s a n o u t l i n e o r d e r o n w h a t i t ate, confer on placing an order using a fort, is one of the five basic func will need for this particular facil subsystem of VIRGOS known as tions that Western performs for ity immediately and what it plans Horizon® Order Entry System. the operating telephone compan for growth in the next few years. ies—along with manufacturing, in- When that order gets to West ern, it has to be expanded to man ufacture and purchase the literally millions of items that will go into, say, a new lA ESS. The order has to fit into manufacturing schedules at the various plants. Sufficient r a w m a t e r i a l s h a v e t o b e o r d e r e d . C a b l e h a s t o b e m a d e t o o r d e r . Instructions have to be prepared f o r t h e i n s t a l l a t i o n c r e w. L o t s o f these activities are repetitious from job to job, but still someone h a s t o s i t d o w n a n d w o r k o u t a l l the detailed specifications and drawings and cable tags for each of the thousands of jobs we work on each year. This is the job of line engineering. Almost since computers first be gan to be used in Western Electric, Last year 10-million production stallation, distribution and pur work got underway to mechanize hours of engineering effort were chasing. the routine of spec writing. For put forth by the Bell Sales Divi On major items like new central crossbar switching systems, ESS, sions. The work was performed by office switching systems, the tele and step-by-step, for example, some 5,000 men and women who phone company sends Western an there were extensive manual and make up the regional equipment order that may run 120 pages. This computerized input forms devel engineering organizations nation order specifies the location and oped that the line engineering or wide. the type of equipment wanted in ganization would fill out using in While the numbers of people in fairly general terms, along with formation from the telephone com these line engineering organiza the various service offerings that pany order plus their own knowl tions have not changed substan they want to provide. Each of edge of system requirements and tially in the past few years, the vol these telephone company jobs is updates on new products from u m e o f w o r k h a s i n c r e a s e d a n d custom engineered to the needs of Bell Labs. All of this longhand 13 Above — Les Kington, Bill Carlucci and Bill Andrews bring 75 years of spec detailing experience to CRMS, an adjunct of VIRGOS. Left—Functional Planner Gene Stopeck. copy would go to key punch, then to the computer room, and, in about two weeks, the engineer would get back a package of specs. The system was in no way self checking, so that if a pencil slipped and you made an error, it would be two weeks before it showed up. In the past year a new system called VIRGOS (Video Interactive Regional Generation of Specifica tions) has been implemented for most ESS jobs at all Regions. The project to develop the necessary software for VIRGOS was begun in Northeastern Region in the spring of 1977 and the first tests were run a year later. By the fall of 1979, Northeastern Region had devel oped master programs for a vari ety of functions formerly done by off-line computer forms. Savings w e r e a c c r u e d w h e r e V I R G O S a i d s gave engineering personnel an or dering mechanism which also com plemented their logic. Additional savings were realized down the line. Key punch, for example, has been virtually eliminated. According to Joe Serrao, North- eastern Region project manage f o r H o r i z o n P B X ' s . telco order, plus his own know m e n t c h i e f w h o h a s b e e n i n v o l v e d While the original development ledge and analysis, the engineer in introducing new computer pro w o r k a s s o c i a t e d w i t h V I R G O S w a s hits a "Y" for yes or an "N" for grams at Northeastern Region, done in Northeastern Region un no or types in code numbers or V I R G O S n o w c o v e r s m o s t e l e c der the former organizational quantities. The computer then fol tronic switching systems as well as structure where each region had lows a logical progression, asking some support systems for central functional responsibility for one additional questions based on the offices. In 1981, additional power, aspect of Bell Sales engineering, last reply. If the user fails to an cable and toll support systems will since March of 1980, Service Line swer a question or puts in some be added plus microwave radio. In Planning and Management (SLPM) thing extraneous, lights flash and 1981-82, a VIRGOS program will has been brought together under the error has to be corrected be be developed for the new #5 ESS. Bob Cowley in a separate General fore the user can proceed. At the moment, a version of VIR Manager organization. SLPM is be U n l i k e t h e t w o w e e k s i t u s e d t o GOS known as HOES (Horizon® hind the drive to get national sys take to get specs back from the Order Entry System) is being used tems to replace individual ones computer room, the engineer now that grew up locally in each region. has them the next morning—and Below — Bill Carlucci uses computer Gene Stopeck, Senior Engineer they are usually without error. graphics to input data that will later In addition to VIRGOS there are be plotted mechanically. in Functional Planning, empha sizes that VIRGOS is a first step other projects, all with long acro in the mechanization of systems nyms for names, which are also im equipment engineering. The next pacting on the SEE environment. step will be to feed telco order in One of the most interesting is formation and office history into CRMS (Cable Routing and Meas the memory banks. Then all man urement Systems). ner of specialized projects can be Historically, this was a manual developed, on the style of the cur function that involved running a rent CRMS (Cable Routing and measuring wheel over scaled plans. Measurement System) or RWLS Now, once the basic configurations (Regional Wiring List System). are fed into the computer, the op "The main thing about VIRGOS," timum runs are figured out elec says Stopeck, is that we've gotten tronically and an automatic plotter the engineers to work in an inter d r a w s t h e l i n e s t h e c a b l e s h o u l d active system, where they can in follow. The computer can tell you terface directly with the computer. if a route is blocked by too much In Northeastern Region there cable already in place or if a criti a r e n o w 3 1 V I R G O S t e r m i n a l s — cal pile up is imminent. The sav actually Dataspeed® 40 teletype ings to the phone company in cop writers. They are located all per have been substantial. through the building in the en VIRGOS is the keystone in Bell gineering departments so that SEE Sales' long range plans. Once VIR personnel have ready access, al GOS is in place, many engineering though each user needs to estab support functions can be mecha lish his identity or need to know nized and eventually all informa before the computer will talk to tion about telephone company him. plant will be centralized in giant Once the engineer tells the ma data banks. "That is still a long way chine the job location and type of off," Gene Stopeck says, "but with spec he's writing, questions flash VIRGOS we're entering a whole up on the CRT screen. Using the n e w e r a . " [ M l :^4il ■■

^ • — - H

Above—The Bell symbol may be heavy with meaning, but cast in aluminum, its components are toted around effortlessly.

Mdldii Corpora

Above—Handling their fiery cargo gingerly, workers pour molten metal into a sand mold of the Bell logo. L e f t — L e t t e r s c a s t i n B e l l System type are lined up by eye on a pattern.

16 By Roger Greene When you hear the word "found in a foundry happens on such a Photos by Chuck Lewis ry," what comes to mind? Giant large scale. In fact, at the Matthews furnaces spewing forth molten International Corporation foundry Here's how they metal into vast, bubbling vats? in Pittsburgh, Pa., there is finely make those Red-hot sparks flying as the seeth detailed, relatively small-scale work metal logos ing metal is poured into huge going on, a good part of it done by molds, forming the outsize parts hand, by skilled metalworkers with you see on the for the machinery of industrial years of experience. outside of America? Workers straining to re The object of their attention is a all Bell System move the newly molded parts when symbol that's very familiar though the metal has cooled? you've probably never given any buildiiigs These are all scenes you might thought to how it's actually made. conjure up. But not everything cast That symbol is the Bell logo, heart 17 of the Bell System's corporate Above—The pattern vanishes identification program. Versatile under a finely-sifted layer of green sand. Once com as we are at Western Electric, we don't manufacture the actual logo pacted, the sand holds the logo's shape tenaciously. ourselves. Keeping the Bell System sup plied with enough logos to go around is no mean task. There are literally thousands of buildings owned or leased by AT&T, Long Lines, Bell Labs, Western Electric, and the 23 operating companies, and practically all of them have Right—With the pattern re Bell logos and other identifying moved, the two halves of signs either on them or nearby. the sand mold are clamped back together, forming a Since 1969, when the Bell System cavity for the molten metal. adopted the current logo style and lettering, Matthews has made thou sands of reproductions in alumi num and bronze, ranging in diam eter from six inches to eight feet. On occasion, even larger ones have been fabricated, but those have to be cut, shaped and welded, instead of being cast. Matthews also casts most of the plaques and free-stand ing letters that help identify Bell t u r a l D i v i s i o n , M a t t h e w s a l s o quality work Matthews can pro System buildings all over the makes product marking equipment duce is found in the company's country. that use indenting, embossing, Classic Bronze product line, which W h e n W e s t e r n E l e c t r i c c o n printing and etching methods; c o n s i s t s o f l i m i t e d e d i t i o n s o f fi n e t r a c t e d w i t h M a t t h e w s i n 1 9 6 9 f o r printing plates to reproduce de art bronze statuary cast by the the manufacture of Bell System signs on corrugated or flexible "lost wax" process. logos and signs, that company was packaging; and bronze products Western Electric gets involved already a leader in the identifica for the cemetery industry, includ primarily at the beginning and end tion field. In addition to the sign ing memorial plaques and crema of a Bell order that's placed with 18 products produced by its Architec- tion urns. An indication of the high- Matthews. The telephone compa- nies, or other units of the Bell Sys them. Selecting letters cast in spe til it's full, and uses a pneumatic tem, send their orders to our Serv cial Bell System type, the set-up "rammer" to compact the sand. i c e C e n t e r s . T h e o r d e r s a r e t h e n person puts them on by hand and After smoothing it out, he places a written up using number-coded lines them up by eye. Shellac is bottom board on top of the com ordering information, and for u s e d t o a d h e r e t h e l e t t e r s t o t h e pacted sand, clamps it on, and, us warded to Matthews. Once every plaque. After it sits for a while and ing an overhead crane, flips the three months or so, an inspector the shellac gets "tacky," an inspec whole thing over. f r o m o u r P u r c h a s e d P r o d u c t s o r tor proofreads the plaque, moves He next removes the original ganization visits the foundry to and adjusts any letters as neces board, which is now on top in order c h e c k o n t h e s t a t u s o f t h e w o r k sary, and then heats the letters with to expose the underside of the being done. When the order is a Bunsen burner. This evaporates logo. Placing the second part of the filled, billing is also handled the alcohol in the shellac and set frame, called the "cope" on top of through Western. In between, tles the letters firmly in place. the drag, he again goes through the t h e r e ' s s o m e s k i l l e d a n d f a s c i n a t Now the pattern for the logo or procedure of shaking, shoveling ing work that goes into the making plaque moves into the foundry for and compacting sand into the of our logos and building signs. casting. A wooden "ram-up" board, frame. Pouring holes are cut into The mold into which molten somewhat larger than the pattern, the sand. Then, removing the metal will be poured is made of is set on the ground. The molder, clamps and briefly lifting off the tightly compacted olivine sand. who will be working on the logo all cope, he loosens the aluminum pat Sand is first compacted around an through casting, places the pattern tern with a mallet, and removes it. W h a t ' s l e f t a r e f r o n t a n d b a c k impressions of the Bell logo in solidly-compacted sand, surround ed by metal frames. When the cope section is lowered again and clamped back onto the drag sec tion, the sand mold is ready for pouring. Molten aluminum is poured at about 1300°F, while bronze is poured at about 2300 °F. Ladles full of molten metal are poured simul taneously into the cavity in the sand through two pouring holes, on either side of the cope. When the metal begins to spill off in a shower of orange sparks, the mold is full. Once the logo or plaque has cooled, it's taken out of the flask to be cleaned and polished. Bronze logos have to be sandblasted clean. Standard patterns are re-usable. Edges have to be smoothed. Letters After twelve years of making Bell have to be tooled clean, and plaques System signs and logos, almost every drilled and tapped. Often, the logo pattern is already on hand. h a s b e e n o r d e r e d i n b r o w n o r black, in which case it will be painted. Finally, it has to be se curely crated, so that it won't sus aluminum pattern, which is then on the board, and sets one section tain any scratches or dents in removed before the molten metal of a metal frame on it. This is called shipping. is poured. The aluminum patterns the "drag." After he wedges the Looking at a Bell logo on a phone are standard ones, made from orig pattern in, to prevent rocking, he building facade, or at a sign se inal layouts supplied in 1969 by the applies a chemical compound on dately marking one of our WE lo designers of the Bell logo, Saul it to keep sand from sticking. cations, who would imagine its B a s s & A s s o c i a t e s . Next, using a "riddle," which is humble beginnings? From lowly Logo patterns are ready to be like a big sifter, he shakes "facing sand and fiery metal, words and used as is, but plaque patterns sand" all over the pattern. Then symbols are given shape to speak must first have letters set up on he shovels sand into the frame un our name to all who approach. body's guess, but the reason may have been because anymore. Even at ballgames and service-club Kearny already had one. "We Kearnyans," words and Wedon't luncheons,go in thefor community singing of thesinging nationalmuch anthem music by Henry Strieker, Jr., an employee, was writ or America the Beautiful is usually performed by a ten the year the plant opened. professional — to luke-warm applause that often We're from Kearny and we spend the day starts eight bars before the singer is finished. Where the old Passaic flows to the bay. Out where the cattails in the breezes sway We think it's a shame, because community singing And where our hearts are always gay. in the old days was a lot of fun. Good, cheap enter Chorus tainment. Wekearnyans wherever we go What brings this up is a letter we received recently Always play the game. from John Boos, a senior engineer at Southwestern We play it hard but we play it square, Region in Ballwin, Mo. Did we know, John asked, that As we make our bid for fame. Western Electric used to have its own song? Proud of the name our vic'tries have won. Proud of the strength with which it was done. It was an intriguing thought even though it turned With all our might we fight. out to be not entirely correct. The song he sent us We never give up. (see back cover) was actually published and copy We're out to win. righted by the Hawthorne Club in 1931. The number Wekearnyans.

W H E R E T H E A D M W R I C M O w r i D T H E B f t V Uri ■MHHED ft IHHMHIN-TO fl WON DER t-BNC tHflt W£te mjoor (T IN EV' - RY WAY

It wasn't Mozart,

but it was fun

of copies actually sold in the depths of the Depression It continues for several more verses, but we'll spare is not available in the archives. The music was by you that. It seems likely that Baltimore and maybe W. J. Ferguson and the words by R. H. Epstein, both some of the larger distributing houses had their own Western Electric employees at the time. songs too, but there are none in our files. Let us stand right up and loudly sing What we did find in digging into the archives, To a tune that's bright and gay, spurred by John Boos' query, was that just before And let our smiles and laughter ring and through World War I, community singing was As we shout the Charley way. very big in Western Electric. While we didn't have a O h ! H a w t h o r n i t e s a l l h e a r t h e c a l l theme song, like the one on the International Lady To each other rise and say: Garment Workers Union commercial, we did have an We'll fight our might for Charley In the good old Hawthorne way. official WE toast: Chorus Tune: "Old Gray Bonnet" Hello Charley Western in the morning. Come all and fill your glasses Hello Charley every night. With the wine that surpasses. Hello Charley in the springtime And we'll toast the good old W.E. When the sun is shining bright With our hearts rejoicing. Hello Charley in the winter. And our feelings voicing. Hello Charley in the fall. We will ev-er loy-al be. Hello Charley is our password We found the toast in an old WE songbook. There Almost any time at all. were lots of mimeographed songsheets without dates, How the Hawthorne song came to be written is any but there were also printed booklets dating from 1913 to 1921, complete with company logo and a stationery More speed — not so slow supply number: 2 E-13-2-75. You could apparently That's the way I test em. order conference song books from stationery the way Gerard Swope was a vice president of Western we order plastic binders or lined pads for a meeting Electric in charge of non-Bell sales from 1913 until today. 1918, at which point he resigned to become president Most of the parodies in these books poke fun at the o f G e n e r a l E l e c t r i c I n t e r n a t i o n a l a n d l a t e r o f t h e company's sales force. It would appear that the sales parent company. General Electric. side of the house was more prone to song than the Many of the songs in these old books had a patriotic manufacturing side. Here's one from 1913: flavor. Others were work songs — sea chanteys and The Salesman's Plea river songs. They had lots of rhythm, simple lyrics, Tune: "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" lots of repetition. You didn't have to be very good to Oh, please send me to Hawthorne, follow along. One of the books, a relic of a sales con Let me see them make phones. ference on the West Coast in 1911, carries this note — Show me the switchboard and cable shop, honest: ril walk 'round till I'm ready to drop. "If you can't sing, make a sound like a seal." And then let me eat at the Lunch Club, H e r e ' s a n o t h e r f r o m 1 9 1 3 t h a t h a s n o m u s i c a l t u n e With Talking Points -fill my dome. for reference. Possibly they all knew it by heart And I'll sell! Sell! Sell to beat Hell!!! We hustle with a vengeance. When I come back home. For "The Western" all the year. All of this brings us back to our reader's questions. And we don't let up a minute Why don't we have them anymore and how did we T h a t ' s t h e r e a s o n w e a r e h e r e . come to have them in the first place? Those are tough So we'll lift our voices gladly questions with deep social roots. It's only when you And with joyous hearts we'll sing start digging that you come to realize how clear a All the good old songs and some new ones. mirror popular songs are of a particular period. They Till we make the welkin ring. can tell you a lot more about the average person than We remember the declining days of the community- a big thick treatise on national events. It's hard to sing craze when we were growing up during the '30s. We sang in school assemblies. We sang aroimd bon believe now, looking back from the cynical '80s, but fires (which also have disappeared) for the "big" people back then really meant what they sang. While there may have been an element of fun, the sentiments game. We sang in college dorms at supper time and at church socials. We also sang in the army during were genuine. WWII. Every USO and base Rec Hall had a battered From all we have been able to find out, community piano and hardly a night would pass, even in combat singing did reach a peak in this country during the second decade of this century. Groups met weekly — zones, when someone wasn't picking out "Melancholy Baby" and soon a group would be harmonizing to just to sing. These were informal groups — not an "Moonlight Bay" or the "Wiffenpoof Song." organized chorus or glee club, although there were I still sing in the shower and occasionally when I'm plenty of those as well. driving alone. To quote an old saying: "I sing beauti Singing was widely used at all types of gatherings — church socials and industrial meetings. It got people ful, but it comes out rotten." Why don't we sing in into a relaxed, participative mood. If people have groups any more? Your guess is as good as mine. More stringent copyright laws are certainly a factor. their mouths open in song, they can't grouse about You can be sued for mimeographing copyrighted the arrangements. And a good fight song could rouse music and lyrics without permission of the copyright people to action, particularly if you had a good song owner. And if you have to go out and buy songbooks, leader. Here's a WE fight song from that era: the cost goes up. In the old days there was virtually Tune: "Come, Josephine, in My Flying Machine" no out-of-pocket expense in typing up songsheets. Hark! to our slogan for Nineteen and Twelve. It is this: "More Bizz!" "Larger Bizz!" The urbanization of America is probably another Sales without profit we'll cut off the docket, factor. Community singing, with its strong reliance on But — "Get the Bizz!" "Lose no Bizz!" folk songs and work songs, has closer ties to the farm Gauged by the op'rating ratio than to the suburbs. As a nation we have become more We'll make good? Well, I should say so. sophisticated. We have more money to spend on en "Get Larger Business for Nineteen and Twelve." tertainment. We've become a nation of spectators Watch our sales — go up! Hooray! rather than participants. And community singing has Maybe it's easier to follow with a piano or guitar b e e n o n e o f t h e v i c t i m s o f t h a t t r e n d . accompaniment. These parodies grew out of bur Finally, they just don't write songs like that any lesque in the days before burlesque meant strip tease. more. Here's one last one — from the good old days: In that era, burlesque just meant broad humor and E yip I addy I ay, I ay, exaggeration. Here's another gem: E yip I addy I ay. Tune: "Capt. Jinks of the Horse Marines" We don't care what the deal may be I'm Captain Swope of the Sales Commit' We're there with the goods for the W.E. I run this good electric ship. E yip I addy I ay, I ay. I drive my men with the crack of the whip. We all feel like yelling hurray, hurray! I'm Captain Swope of the Western. Oh, the Western stands pat Zip, bang, away we go And we're all glad of that More coal, steam's low. Y i p I a d d y I a y . G . G . I M ] 2 1 WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT BENEFITS?

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ANSWER TRUE OR FALSE bank, even though you haven't 7 Nogroup matter life insurancewhen you requires enroll, previously contributed blood to it. n o m e d i c a l e x a m i n a t i o n f o r e m ployees on roll. WWhenwas broken you were in a a footballkid, your nosegame 1em You've Electric been employed for six years. by West- You and it wasn't really set properly so s u f f e r a h e r n i a a n d a r e o u t f o r a 8 Thep a y a maximum b l e f o r o r lifetime t h o d o nbenefit t i a i s t h a t i t ' s n o w a l i t t l e c r o o k e d . T h e total of nine weeks. You receive $1,000 for each eligible individual. health insurance plan will pay your full pay for all the time you are hospital and medical expenses if out, in addition to payments for you want to have it straightened. most of the charges for hospital 9 Youhave take to pay early the retirement. premiums You on and medical care. your health insurance until you You have an unmarried child pass age 65, at which point you age 20 who is a full-time stu come under the medicare supple d e n t . H e o r s h e c a n h e i n c l u d e d 2 Ifpension, you are but eligible die for before a service filing ment expense plan. under your basic hospital surgical- a n y r e t i r e m e n t p a p e r s , y o u r medical coverage until the end of spouse receives a death benefit, the year of the 23rd birthday or but loses all claim to your pension. mThetake health care ofinsurance most expenses plans upon termination of studies. when you have a medical emer gency. After you retire and pass age 3 Ifan you on-the-job should die accident, as a result your of 65, you're on your own as far beneficiary would receive a benefit as paying for any health insurance equal to three years' pay. n Therebenefit is plan no provision for insuring in the the o v e r a n d a b o v e M e d i c a r e . life of a spouse or dependent child. That you have to do on your own. YJ When you retire, your hospital 4An d e n employee's t i s t f o r t h e wife fi r s twent t i m e to s ithe n c e If and medical insurance stops her coverage became effective. As at the end of the following month. a result of the examination, which EYoutack suffered on the Sundaya mild before heart youat the plan paid for in full, she had to w e r e t o l e a v e o n a t w o - w e e k v a c a h a v e 1 0 t e e t h f i l l e d — f o r w h i c h t h e tion and were rushed to the hospi WTheplan LTD applies (long only term to disability) manage dentist charged $190. The plan tal. Although you were brought ment employees. paid $59; she had to pay $131. home in a few days, you had to rest and could not go on the planned vacation trip. Since you WYounual are salary age is 40 $16,220. and your You an pay 5 Youget threeneed weeks 10 years' vacation? service to started on vacation at the close of $3.40 per month for additional sup business on Friday, you lose your plementary insurance which pro vacation. vides you with $34,000 of life insur 6 Ifmember the dental of your bill for family any exceeds one ance coverage under the company $500 of covered dental plan bene Your son has been seriously group life insurance program. fits, during a given year, the Com injured in a motorcycle acci pany will pay up to that amount d e n t a n d n e e d s a b l o o d t r a n s f u Only your spouse may be and no more, regardless of cir sion. The blood can be obtained named as a beneficiary to cumstances. free of charge from the WE blood your group life insurance. ANSWERS health satisfactory to the insurance functional defect resulting from company. congenital disease or anomaly. True. Unmarried full-time stu 8 True.and This distinct maximum from theis separate plan's dent children under 23 years work because of illness or an off- ITrue. If you are absent from $750 calendar year maximum. old will continue eligibility under the-job injury for longer than seven the health insurance plan. Unmar calendar days, benefits start on the ried dependents age 19 and over eighth calendar day of absence 9 False.employee—and While you after are youa regular retire with a service or disability pension who are full-time students may based on your service. In your case, maintain coverage under the plan you'd receive full pay for up to 13 —you and your eligible dependents continue coverage under the com as a sponsored dependent. Em weeks, half pay for the next 39 if pany health insurance plans. ployee will be required to pay the you are out that long. full premium through payroll de Generally, this is true. The duction. Sponsored coverage is plan pays the hospital in full available through end of year that 2 False.years If service you have and completed leave a surviv 15 for medical emergencies within 72 child attains age 23. ing spouse, an automatic survivor h o u r s a f t e r t h e o n s e t o f s u d d e n annuity will be paid monthly to the and serious injury, such as asth s u r v i v o r f o r t h e r e m a i n d e r o f h i s o r vides Medicare supplementary matic attack, stroke, convulsions, K False. The company pro h e r l i f e i n t h e a m o u n t o f o n e h a l f h e a l t h i n s u r a n c e o v e r a n d a b o v e shock, acute coronary, hemor the computed pension reduced by Medicare coverage for retired em rhage, coma or severe nose bleed 10 percent (computed as though a ployees age 65 and over, and eligi ing. survivor annuity had been elected). ble dependents age 65 and over of active and retired employees. n False.enrolled Effective employees July will 1, 1981, be eli 3 True.pay two The times company your basicwould group also gible to purchase life insurance YJ False. At and during retire- life insurance coverage. Your basic ll ment your hospital surgical coverage for spouses and depend coverage is equaled to your annual medical coverage and major medi ent children for $5,000 and $1,500 cal coverage continues without in pay rounded to the next higher respectively. The total cost to the terruption. Retirees enrolled in $1,000. In addition, the company employee will be $1.80 a month re would pay up to $500 toward fune HMOs (Prepaid Plans) may also be gardless of the number of individ able to continue the HMO coverage ral expenses. u a l s c o v e r e d . they had as active employees. 4 True.ices and Fillings are are paid Type under B a schedserv sickness disability benefits as E False. You would be placed on K False.b e n e fi LTD t s t o provides b o t h s a l aadditional r i e d a n d ule. The schedule allowed $109 (for if you had been working and vaca represented employees with six or 14 surfaces), but it was necessary tion would be rescheduled. Should m o r e m o n t h s o f s e r v i c e . for the patient to satisfy a one-time the illness occur in one year and $50 deductible. All future claims continue into the next year vaca full cost of your basic cover will be paid without the deductible tion will be rescheduled provided KTrue. The company pays the as long as the employee remains age, which is your annual basic pay you were able to return to work raised to the next $1,000. You pay before April 1 of the following year. continuously employed by the Bell 200 per month for each $1,000 of System. True. Whenever you or your supplementary coverage or $3.40 eligible dependents require per month. As an option to this blood or blood plasma for transfu 5 False.employees Effective with January seven 1, years 1981, of supplementary coverage which is Bell System net credited service sions, the blood processing charge equal to your basic coverage you became eligible for three weeks made by many hospitals for blood may purchase additional, supple vacation. that is provided through a com mentary insurance equal to one munity blood program or a recog half or one times your basic cover nized blood donor program—such 6 False.the maximum Effective January calendar 1,1981, year age. as the company blood bank—will d e n t a l b e n e fi t w a s i n c r e a s e d f r o m False. You may name as your be covered under your insurance $500 to $750 for each employee and beneficiary any person, or plan. eligible dependent. your estate, or any association le gally entitled to hold property, or 7 False.tive the Your day insurance after you completeis effec WTrue.M e d i c Hospital a l b e n e fi t and s a r e Surgical- a v a i l a b l e any corporation except Western when cosmetic surgery is required s i x m o n t h s ' s e r v i c e a n d h a v e e n Electric. You may name more than as a result of trauma (such as a rolled. No medical examination is one beneficiary if you wish, and football injury), infection or other required unless you delay enrolling you may change your beneficiary for supplementary coverage more disease of the involved part. Also at any time by completing a form than 31 days after becoming eligi t o c o r r e c t b i r t h d e f o r m i t i e s o r a for that purpose. ble. In that case, supplementary 19-20 Sure you didn't peek? 15-18 Admirable coverage will not become effective ratIng until you provide evidence of good 10-14 Average Under 10 Better study your pamphlets OUR NEWEST Architect's rendering of our new facility in Orlando.

now announced that West OnMay ern Electric15, 1980, hadDon signedProck- an option agreement to purchase 350 acres of land in Orange County, Florida near the city of Orlando. The actual purchase took place in January 1981, following agree m e n t s a m o n g We s t e r n , O r a n g e County, the State of Florida and t h e E PA o n t h e u t i l i t i e s a n d s e r v ices we would require. A 700,000-square foot plant will be built on the site to manufacture very large scale integrated circuits (See "VLSI," page 2). The plant is expected to be completed by early 1983 and will begin production in 1984. It will be a campus-style com plex of five buildings, all single story except for a three-story office building. Why Orlando? Paul Matt Jr., General Manager, Corporate En gineering, Plant Design and Con struction, explains: "We were at tracted to Orlando by the labor pool, the excellent air and ground transportation and the educational facilities." In his announcement of the pur chase, Mr. Procknow went further: "We like Florida, we like the Or lando area and what it has to offer, and we like the enthusiasm of the people here. We're looking for ward to a long and mutually bene ficial association." T h e e n t h u s i a s m h e t o u c h e d o n is so intense in Orlando it is prob ably deserving of another, stronger word, and nobody in this sunny city doubts that the association will be mutually beneficial. 24 Jim Harris, County Administra- The two biggest things that ever happened to Orlando are Disney World and Western Electric Photos by J.Walter Miller HOMETOWN

tor for Orange County is happy to tell you why: "The two biggest and best events in Orlando's history have been Disney World and West ern Electric." Voluble, yet soft- spoken, Harris is not given to hy perbole. When he says that West e r n E l e c t r i c ' s m o v e d o w n t o O r lando is the biggest and best thing to happen since Walt Disney opened his fantasy land ten years ago, you know he means it. Since Left — Western Electric was big news in Orlando, and suspense ran high until all papers were signed. Right — Jim Brown, President of Orlando Central Park looking over Western's newly acquired site. almost everyone else you talk to says some variation of the same thing, you also know the whole town means it, too. It's partly our good neighbor reputation preceed- of eggs to put in one basket. What's money and the County Commis ing us. It's also a question of eco more, it makes us vulnerable to sion will put up the other half. nomics and the area's future. gasoline crunches like the one in The second thing done was to Metropolitan Orlando pretty 1973. So we decided to make a guarantee Western Electric two- m u c h e x i s t s o n t o u r i s m . I n t h e major effort to attract clean light million gallons a day of effluent in year 10 A.D. (After Disney), it has i n d u s t r i e s . We s t e r n E l e c t r i c i s t h e to the local sewage and water the largest aggregation of tourist bellwether of that effort, and we t r e a t m e n t f a c i l i t i e s . T h i s e n t a i l e d a t t r a c t i o n s i n t h e w o r l d a n d a t expect others to follow your lead." an enormous amount of coopera tracts the largest number of tour H a r r i s n o t e s t h a t F l o r i d a w a s tion between state, local and even ists. Fourteen million people vis able to attract 72 companies in federal agencies. ited Disney World last year. Hotel/ 1980. But all of them together It also required a lot of good motel rooms have grown from less don't add up to Western Electric will. "You know," says Harris, than 5,000 in 1969 to well over in terms of size, money and em "I've made nearly a hundred 32,000 today. Not surprisingly, 50 ployment." speeches since it all started, and percent of the local work force are "We really wanted you," he I've never heard a single critical in the service/tourist industry. Ac adds, "and we did a couple of comment or question about your cording to Harris, this staggering things to attract you that were folks coming down here. figure will rise to an even more never done in the history of Or "This is a watershed event," he staggering 65 percent by the year lando." a d d s a s w e t a k e o u r l e a v e . " O r 2000 if present trends continue. One of those things was to dedi lando will never be the same again. This is more than twice the nation c a t e f u n d s t o e x t e n d a n a c c e s s It will be better." al average. r o a d t o t h e We s t e r n E l e c t r i c s i t e . Jim Bullion, Executive Director "And that," says Harris, "is a lot The state will put up half the o f t h e C h a m b e r o f C o m m e r c e "It used to be called Rattlesnake Lake, but we had to change the name ..."

echoed Harris' enthusiasm. "I involved in solving the sewage t h i n k i t ' s f a n t a s t i c ! " h e s a i d a n d problem and spoke to several peo added an interesting sidelight. He ple about it, including some of expects Western Electric and the former President Carter's men. A companies that follow to help end forward looking man, he finds the w h a t h e c a l l s t h e " O r l a n d o B r a i n prospect of Orlando becoming an Drain." other "Silicon Valley" very appeal "We raise a lot of bright kids ing. "When I was growing up here, and, after we educate them, around here," he says, "agriculture they don't have any place to go. was runaway the biggest industry N o w o u r k i d s w o n ' t h a v e t o l e a v e we had—tomatoes, oranges, grape Orlando for High-Tech employ fruit and things like that." ment." As for Western Electric's coming T h e e d u c a t i o n B u l l i o n r e f e r s t o down, he became a little more can be pretty extensive. Nearby f o r m a l : " W e s t e r n E l e c t r i c ' s m o v e University of Central Florida has foreshadows a major change in grown considerably since it opened t h e e c o n o m i c s t r u c t u r e o f t h i s its doors to 184 students in 1968. community. It suggests a major Enrollment is now over 1,600 and change away from yesterday's the school offers both undergradu t o u r i s t - o r i e n t e d f o r m t o o n e e m ate and graduate courses in many phasizing clean, high-tech indus Canaveral 50 miles away. Electron engineering disciplines as well as try. It represents a welcome diver ics, engineering and defense manu the liberal arts. The area also has sification that will yield great facturing firms, including Martin several other four-year and two- benefit to the working people of Marietta began moving into the year colleges as well as over 100 Orlando." area. In 10 years, the population elementary, junior high, private "Orlando is a big city," says doubled, making Orlando the fifth and parochial and high schools. Roy Harris, Executive Vice Presi fastest growing metropolitan area Many people have come here to dent of the Industrial Development in the country. retire, while many others have Commission of Mid-Florida, "but The real boom began in 1971 come down impelled by the incom it is still basically a small town. with the opening of the 43-square ing tide of new industries. People You can go anywhere in the Or mile Disney World 20 miles south who have been here for a while are lando area in about 20 minutes, west of Orlando. Larger than Man proud of it and even tend to be a so a person can work and live hattan Island, this self-contained little proprietary about the area's anywhere he wants. w o r l d e n t e r t a i n s o v e r 1 - m i l l i o n v i s many advantages. One old timer, Orlando's history wouldn't fill itors a month, employs approxi noting my New York subway pal a library, but it does have a little. mately 13,000 people and spends lor, told me to help myself to some It was a campground for soldiers over 11-million every week for sun. As he started to walk off into during the bloody Seminole Indian goods and services. palm-lined Eola Lake Park, he War of 1835 to 1842, and its name About seven or eight miles east turned and, apropros of nothing, probably goes back to that period. of Disney's Magic Kingdom is the said with obvious pride and a thin According to one account, the city W e s t e r n E l e c t r i c s i t e . I t i s s i t u New Jersey accent, "I've been here was originally called Orlando's ated in one corner of a 4,300 acre since 1953." A real native! Grave in memory of young Or development known as Orlando One of the few genuine natives lando Reeves, a sentry killed by Central Park. Jim Brown, a native we talked to was newly elected raiding Indians as he stood watch of Dallas "and proud of it," is Mayor Bill Frederick. Like Or one night early in the war. President. He has a wry sense of lando itself, Frederick is young, In the fifties, Orlando started humor, all offered deadpan. Point attractive and friendly. Even be- to grow along with the John F. ing out his office window to lovely 26 fore being elected, he was deeply Kennedy Space Center at Cape Lake Ellenor, he says, "It used to takes you South to Miami in 4'/2 hours, and the Beeline Expressway takes you directly to the East Coast and Kennedy Space Center in less than an hour. The Western Electric site is even more centrally located. It is two miles east of SeaWorld, eight miles east of Disney World, five miles west of Orlando International Air port and seven miles southwest of downtown Orlando. S.F.IMl

Left — Against panoramic view of his city's skyline. Mayor Bill Frederick talks about Orlando. Below — Roy Harris, one of the men who helped clear the way for Western Electric, offers a lesson in local geography. be called Rattlesnake Lake, but we had to change the name to attract c u s t o m e r s . " I t c o u l d a l s o h a v e been called Alligator Lake, because these long-snouted reptiles are also here. Not that Orlando Central Park is all wilderness. Some 1,200 of its 4,300 acres are already occupied by 350 companies employing more than 10,000 people. None of this growth has been belter skelter. J i m B r o w n a n d h i s O r l a n d o C e n t r a l P a r k h a v e w o n a n u m b e r o f awards for planning, landscape beautification and environmental concerns. "But," he says, "the real award is having companies like W e s t e r n E l e c t r i c c o m e d o w n . " The park's popularity is at least partly due to its location virtually i n t h e c e n t e r o f t h e s t a t e . I t i s bordered and crossed by four of Florida's major highways. Day- tona Beach on the East Coast and Tampa to the West are only a 60 and 90-minute drive via Interstate 4. The Florida Turnpike, which b i s e c t s O r l a n d o C e n t r a l P a r k , 27 The Hawthorne Works has a ring pools of at least four persons. side seat when it comes to public Within that second scratch lay transportation. It is served by 10 the rub: few employees were inter city and suburban bus lines, sits ested in rounding up three other across the street from a subway- people, so car pool spaces went elevated line, and is a short walk begging. That created the awkward from a Burlington Northern Rail situation of having employees on r o a d c o m m u t e r s t a t i o n . waiting lists for parking spaces Still, nearly one-third of its em while pool spaces stood vacant. ployees participate in Hawthorne's So, it was back to Square One. car pool program—one of the Com Hawthorne management had be pany's most successful. gun to ask itself what it would take With so much public transporta to convince employees of the wis tion so readily available, it would dom of car pooling. In mid-1974, a appear unlikely that Hawthorne couple of events proved to be for would even want to back a pool tuitous in providing an answer. program, let alone need one. Yet, First, the Arab embargo of oil ship Hawthorne's employees, much like ments occurred, causing shortages the rest of America, have found it that led to nerve-wracking lines at d i f fi c u l t t o k i c k t h e a u t o m o b i l e gas stations and wallet-emptying habit. Consequently, the plant's rises in fuel prices. Second, an ex parking lots were assigned beyond panse of land on the Hawthorne capacity and employees found t r a c t w a s a v a i l a b l e w h e n s o m e themselves on waiting lists that manufacturing buildings were c o n t a i n e d o v e r a t h o u s a n d n a m e s . razed. Hawthorne management began The Works management decided to deal with the problem in the late to build a 350-car parking lot on 1 9 6 0 ' s w h e n i t s w o r k f o r c e w a s the site. Among those spaces would larger than today. Surveys indi be a bloc dedicated to car poolers. cated that its two largest parking The trickle of requests grew to a lots were overwhelmingly—75 per d r i b b l e a s s o m e c o n s e r v a t i o n - cent and 90 percent—occupied by minded employees began to see the vehicles that carried only one per light. son to and from the premises. Still, Hawthorne employees were Of course, gasoline then cost less not showing the interest that man than 50 cents a gallon and few peo agement had hoped for. Massive ple fretted much about the possi publicity, the offer of premium bility of shortages. Several at parking spaces to car pools—noth tempts to encourage car pooling to ing worked. Something was miss solve the space problem and re ing. duce pollution fell pretty much on In 1975, Hawthorne dismantled deaf ears. Employees who already its foundry building, literally pav had been assigned parking privi ing the way for another 350-car lot leges were content, and everybody —with 130 designated car pool else seemed to blame pollution on spaces — to open in 1976. At the everybody else. same time, slumping business con Undaunted, Hawthorne's Plant d i t i o n s r e d u c e d H a w t h o r n e ' s w o r k Security organization decided to force to below 9,000. The two try the "scratch my back and I'll events combined to ease the park scratch yours" approach to the ing snarl, but did not alleviate it. problem. The Company's scratch: And, while the addition of 130 new we'll restripe the parking lot, car pool spaces in a highly desir which will provide more parking able area on the tract should have spaces. Among them, we'll dedicate been a plum for employees, they some of them solely to car pools. largely went begging. There was Employees, in order to use those still a waiting list for employees spaces, would have to create car who wanted to park in company T h i s v i e w o f H a w t h o r n e ' s newest parking lot clearly shows one of the Works' early problems. The rear portion of the lot is filled to capacity wliile dedicated car pool spaces (center left) await assignment. lots, but the car pool program had number where the employee could stantial progress. In fact, through to be more successful to accommo be reached. Thus, other employees 1980, more than 200 messages have date them. who lived in their general vicinity been printed in the Microphone. The turning point was the spring could contact them, and they Today, the plant emploj's some of 1977, when the Public Relations would in turn approach the Plant 7,000 people, yet more than 2,000 and Plant Security organizations Security organization for a car are presently in car pools ranging hit upon the idea of matching em pool parking sticker. in size from three to seven persons. Less than 50 await assignment in ployees who might wish to begin At the same time, Hawthorne car pools with like-minded co pool parking spaces, and most of w o r k e r s w h o l i v e n e a r t h e m . T h i s management decided to re-examine those await vacancies in a specific its four-per-car requirements for concept was embodied in a "Car lot. pool privileges. It was determined Pool Ride Board," a regular feature that maybe three was a more de Works management estimated in the Works' monthly publication, that car poolers and mass transit sirable number. the Microphone. Employees were riders make up 50 to 60 percent of asked to provide their work and With the easing of that qualifica its work force. Even so, Hawthorne home locations, and indicate what tion, along with new poolers cre is continuing to look for ways to shift they worked. This was to be ated by the Car Pool Ride Board, increase ridesharing among its em accompanied by a work phone Hawthorne's program made sub ployees. IMl 29 STAGERS YEAR

When General Anson Stager died ing a recession. in 1885 in Chicago, the New York As part of its cutbacks. Western Union was getting rid of a repair Daily Tribune devoted a full col ANSON STAGER umn on the front page to his pass shop it operated in Cleveland. The ing. Then as now, front-page obitu company had two other shops — aries were unusual. It only helps to Anson Stager one in Ottawa, Illinois, and another point up that he was a celebrity of in New York City. The manager of national significance. was a man of the Cleveland shop, one George Although it rated only a short many parts; Shawk, had bought the equipment phrase in his obituary, from 1869 one of them was and started an electrical supply until 1881, Stager was the principal business. Earlier he had patented a owner of the business that became Western Electric burglar alarm, which he hoped Western Electric. He had the title w o u l d m a k e h i s f o r t u n e . of President; however, he drew no Shawk was a good craftsman but salary and had no office on com In order to put those contributions uneducated and rather frightened pany premises. The operating head in perspective, a brief review of the at being on his own. He was looking of the business, who had various company's early years may be in for a young partner with sales skills titles until he became president in order. and some money. Barton was the 1886, was Enos Barton. In the fall of 1868, Enos Barton man he settled upon. Barton is generally regarded as was a 26-year-old telegrapher, in As part of Western Union's finan the founder of the business, and charge of the Western Union office cial cutback. Barton had been told its guiding spirit during its first in Rochester, N.Y. Western Union that his pay was going to have to be half century. But Stager made ex was an industrial giant, even then, cut 10 percent. This was rather a tremely vital contributions to the but it was having financial prob blow to a young man planning to 30 business, particularly during 1881. lems. The country was experienc get married. It was, in fact, the straw that broke the camel's back. men. Gray and Barton, were broke. Western Union was cutting back He had some money saved up for To try and find a way out of their further on its repair operations, his marriage and his mother mort dilemma, they called on Gen. and the Ottawa Shop in Illinois, a gaged the family farm to provide Stager again to try to sell him some facility not unlike the one that Gray another $400. In all, he paid $1,300 other inventions. Stager came up and Barton started in, came on for a half interest in Shawk's busi with a counterproposal: If the the market. Unlike the Cleveland ness. The first ad for the new firm, young men would move their busi shop, however, Ottawa had more Shawk and Barton, appeared in the ness to Chicago, where he was be up-to-date equipment and some January 1869 issue of the Journal of ing transferred, he would become valuable telegraph designs. the Telegraph. The precise date of a silent partner. He had confidence A plan was worked out by Nor the start of the new business is not in Gray's inventiveness and he m a n W i l l i a m s f o r t h e e s t a b l i s h available in the archives, but it knew young Barton as one of the ment of a new firm to be called the seems reasonable that it was Janu best telegraphers in the country. Western Electric Manufacturing ary 1. Company. According to Williams, The major customer of the a young attorney who handled legal young firm located on the top floor matters for Stager, the new firm at 93 St. Clair Street was a profes would consolidate the Ottawa Shop sor Elisha Gray. Gray was an inven of Western Union and the down tor and the bane of Shawk's exist town Chicago shop of Gray and ence. Gray wanted the workforce, Barton. Following the merger, the which numbered about six men, to new firm would take over the entire devote all of their time to building supply and repair business for m o d e l s f o r h i s i n v e n t i o n s — o n Western Union in the Western part speculation. Shawk was sure that of the United States. Gray was going to bankrupt them. W e s t e r n U n i o n w a s t o r e c e i v e a And he wasn't far wrong. third of the stock of the new com In the spring, Shawk decided he pany, in payment for the Ottawa had had enough. He sold his half shop. The investment was carried of the business to Professor Gray. on their books as worth $35,000. To get the money to buy his way Stager would get a third and the into the business, Elisha Gray had rest would be held by Gray, Barton gone to Gen. Stager, at that time a n d a n u m b e r o f W e s t e r n U n i o n one of Cleveland's leading business office managers in various cities men. He was General Manager for from Pittsburgh to St. Louis. Western Union in all of the country T h e b u s i n e s s w a s l o c a t e d i n a except the East Coast. He had been E N O S B A R T O N small section of a building on A b r a h a m L i n c o l n ' s c h i e f c o m m u n i Kinzie Street in Chicago which cations officer during the Civil War The young men quickly agreed. Gen. Stager had put up on specula as head of Military Telegraphs and It was a bonanza for them to move tion after the fire of 1871. Soon, it he had been a key figure in making in one step from virtual bankrupt added a street-floor shop and a the telegraph a national service. cy to affiliation with one of the basement. In a very few years, Stager is the man who talked the richest, most successful business WEM occupied the entire building railroads into allowing the tele men in the country. In August, and purchased it outright from graph company to use their right Stager advanced them $500 to rent Gen. Stager. of way for their pole lines. He also a shop in Chicago. Barton took a Most of this success took place persuaded them to allow telegraph little time off in November to get before the invention of the tele construction crews to travel by married, but before the end of the phone in 1876. In fact, Elisha Gray train to worksites free. In return, year they were permanently settled l e f t t h e b u s i n e s s a b o u t 1 8 7 4 t o the railroads got to use the tele in the windy city. But they contin w o r k o n h i s o w n v e r s i o n o f t h e graph. ued to lose money and Stager con telephone. His part in business was Elisha Gray had invented an au t i n u e d t o b a i l t h e m o u t — t o t h e acquired by Milo G. Kellogg, son of tomatic printer for the telegraph. point where he soon owned 70 per the man who provided the mort He sold an interest in his patent to cent. gage money that got Barton started. Stager for several thousand dol The young firm got a big boost Most of the company's business lars, which he used to buy out in 1871. It had escaped the great during those early years in Chicago Shawk. Chicago fire and helped provide c a m e f r o m W e s t e r n U n i o n . T h e r e By mid-summer, Shawk's warn electrical supplies for the rebuild was also some business in signaling ings proved correct. The two young ing that immediately followed. equipment for the railroads, burg- 31 lar alarms, gas lighting for theaters yer recommended that his com setts, Western Union was battling a a n d a n n u n c i a t o r s f o r h o t e l s a n d pany settle the suit and withdraw competing nationwide telegraph large private residences. from the telephone business. company that had been formed by In the summer of 1877, Stager A committee was set up, includ financier Jay Gould. Gould was a was one of the first men that Gard ing Gen. Stager among its mem much more formidable opponent ner Hubbard, Alexander Graham bers, to bring about a consolidation than the young telephone company. Bell's backer and father-in-law, ap of the telephone companies owned He and William K. Vanderbilt, the proached in trying to sell the tele by Western Union with those of controlling stockholder in Western phone. Stager turned it down and American Bell. The settlement Union, had been battling each later kicked himself: "They wanted came late in 1879 and the actual other for years. $100,000," he is reported to have consolidations during 1880. There is some evidence to sug said, "and I probably could have One of the largest of the new gest that one reason for the rather gotten it all for $75,000." consolidated telephone companies hasty settlement of the Dowd case But Stager soon had his own was a rumor that Gould was buy company. Western Electric Manu ing up Bell franchises in an attempt facturing, working on an "im to gain control of the telephone proved" telephone, using inven b u s i n e s s a n d t h e o u t - o f - c o u r t s e t tions of Elisha Gray, Thomas Edi tlement might keep Gould out of son and George Phelps. By the end the telegraph business. The famous of 1878 not only were they making settlement of 1879 was a two-way phones but also switchboards, and street — not only was Western two young men from Western Elec Union forced out of the telephone tric, Francis Welles and D. H. Loud- b u s i n e s s f o r t h e d u r a t i o n o f B e l l ' s erback, were traveling the Mid patents, American Bell was shut west, setting up telephone operat out of the telegraph business for ing companies in major cities. In the same period. most of these companies. Stager T h e b e h i n d - t h e - s c e n e s b a t t l e f o r was listed as president and a major control of Western Union had been shareowner. going on all through 1880, and in In 1879, the Bell interests in Bos January of 1881, Vanderbilt de ton brought suit, for patent in cided he had lost enough. He called fringement against Peter A. Dowd, Gould to his newly completed man who was setting up telephone com sion on Fifth Avenue in New York panies in Massachusetts with the and told him he was withdrawing. backing of a Western Union sub Over the next few months he sold sidiary. ELISHA GRAY off all of his stock and much of it T h i s w a s t h e fi r s t o f s o m e 6 0 0 was acquired by Gould and his suits involving the Bell patents was Chicago Telephone, formed close associate, Russell Sage. over the next 18 years, but in many from Stager's American District Anson Stager, who had been ways it was the most important Telegraph Company and the Bell Va n d e r b i l t ' s c h i e f l i e u t e n a n t i n t h e one, although it was settled out of Company located across the street. West, resigned as vice president court. Practically everybody in Anson Stager was named president and director of Western Union, but American Bell and Western Elec of the new firm. h e w a s l e f t i n t h e r a t h e r a w k w a r d tric was called upon to testify, in He was also within a short while, position of having one of his com cluding Bell, Hubbard, Watson, simultaneously president of South panies, Western Electric Manufac Stager, Barton and Gray. ern Bell, Western Edison Electric turing, still controlled by Western Both Elisha Gray and Alexander Light, and the Central Union Tele Union. Graham Bell had filed for a patent phone Company, made up from the This brings up another thread on a telephone only hours apart on small Western Electric backed op in the fabric. For several years, the exact same day. Although erations in Iowa, Illinois and Indi Theodore N. Vail, general manager neither one at that moment of filing ana. However, at the beginning of of American Bell, had been at had a working model of his inven 1881, he was still vice president, a tempting to standardize central- tion, they filed different forms. Bell director and General Manager of office equipment so that offices in filed a normal patent application Central Region for Western Union, one town could be joined together while Gray filed a caveat or notice but that career was fast drawing w i t h t h o s e i n o t h e r t o w n s . A t t h i s of intent, which is no longer used. to a close. time there was no long distance Largely on the basis of the tech- At the same time that the Dowd service. Telephone service was pro 32 nicalities, the Western Union law case was underway in Massachu vided by a franchise holder in a relatively small area, although No mention of the purchase ever Charles Williams, Jr., the Boston some of the company names were made the press. Western Union's firm that supplied Bell telephones. very grandiose. president, Norvin Green, had re Western Electric Manufacturing Charles Williams in Boston, quested that nothing be said until had acquired a 61 percent interest whose Mr. Watson had built Bell's h e i n f o r m e d h i s B o a r d . B u t a f e w in Gilliland. The proposal was that models and assisted in the early days later. President Garfield was the three concerns be merged and experiments, was a relatively small shot and this swept everything else that, in exchange for exclusive shop. They had put on more hands, off the front pages for the rest of rights to supply the franchised Bell but they had neither the manpower the summer—even the spectacular companies, 20 percent of the stock n o r fi n a n c i a l r e s o u r c e s n o r t e c h n i telegraph lawsuit. Dr. Green was of the new company would be given cal know-how, to supply all of the happy for the respite from the pub to American Bell. central office gear needed all over licity spotlight. In August 1881, Stager sold 200 the country. Part of the agreement between shares of his own stock in WEM, to Although American Bell's stock A m e r i c a n B e l l a n d i t w a s t h e s e had risen sharply in value follow shares that gave Vail the control he ing the Western Union settlement, desired. Now, there was no way they also lacked the know-how and anyone else could acquire control. cash needed to establish a large The organization of the new manufacturing firm. company was discussed through Stager's company. Western Elec several drafts going back and forth tric Manufacturing, with plants in between Chicago and Boston dur Chicago and New York, was 10 ing that long hot summer. The com times the size of Charles Williams plications centered around a num in terms of employment. In the ber of patents that Western held. spring of 1881, it acquired Gilliland W e s t e r n w a s a l s o i n v o l v e d i n Electric in Indianapolis, which was another way with some of the same probably the next largest electric people in setting up a telephone firm in the country at the time. factory abroad. Gilliland had a license to manufac Ezra Gilliland, whose plant ture certain products for Bell fran WEM had acquired in Indianapolis, c h i s e h o l d e r s . I t ' s n o t c e r t a i n was in Antwerp, Belgium, negotiat whose idea it was, that American ing with International Bell, whose Bell acquire Western Electric Man principal stockholder was Gardner ufacturing, but some old letters in Greene Hubbard, Bell's father-in- the archives imply that it was Theo law. dore Vail. T H E O D O R E N . V A I L Both struggles came to a con It fell upon Stager, however, to clusion around the same time. The get Western Union to agree to sell. Vail and Stager concerning West new company. Western Electric He did this, not without some ern Electric was that American Bell Company (Illinois) was incorpo grousing, in the late spring of 1881. would go into the deal only if it rated November 26, 1881. At the At the time. Western Union was in could be assured that it would have Board meeting on December 10, volved in another major court bat control of the supply company. Stager was formally elected presi tle that was making headlines as While the 1,000 shares of Western dent; Barton, vice president; and o n e fi n a n c i a l t i t a n a f t e r a n o t h e r Electric Manufacturing Company Stafford Lynch, a Stager associate testified. that they had acquired from West from his Army days, was secretary. In fact. Western Electric Manu ern Union gave them a substantial At the same time Francis Welles, facturing, was relatively small po interest, it was not yet controlling. the young man who had set up WE tatoes, compared to the millions of The control was provided by set telephone companies in Iowa, Illi d o l l a r s i n v o l v e d i n t h e l a w s u i t . ting up a completely new company, nois and Indiana, and who intro W E M w a s n o w o n t h e b o o k s a s to be formed by merger of three duced the phone in Australia, left worth $50,000. American Bell of firms. Since the plan bears a strong for Europe to become manager of fered $150,000 for it and the offer resemblance to the one drawn up the new plant in Antwerp. was accepted. During one of the by Stager's attorney, Norman Wil All of this was prelude. On Feb w o r s t h e a t w a v e s i n N e w Yo r k ' s liams, for the original WEM, it ruary 6, 1882, the new firm signed history. Vail traveled to New York seems likely that Williams designed the manufacturing contract that with a satchel full of cash and came the second one also. m a d e W e s t e r n E l e c t r i c t h e s o l e b a c k h o m e w i t h W e s t e r n U n i o n ' s In the spring of 1881, American supplier of approved equipment 1,000 shares of WEM. Bell acquired an option to buy to the telephone companies. [mI To change address beiow, please notify your supervisor; retirees, your benefit branch office.

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